Academic Jobs in CS in Germany and Switzerland
This is some information about jobs in Germany (and to some extent
Switzerland) informally compiled from faculty. This is not
comprehensive, and only the parts that obviously contrast from the U.S.
system are highlighted. As always, check with your advisor and
others to get the skinny on schools and strategize about your
application process.
German academic system
Finding out about jobs
Job application
Interviewing
Language
Switzerland-specific information
Top-tier schools in CS in Germany and Switzerland
For more general information about the higher education system and
research opportunities, see the European University Insitute
Pages on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
German Academic System
There is wide variation between individual universities' policies in
Germany, so this is a very general overview. Germany has not
traditionally had an assistant professor position. Ph.D. students
were expected to take a post-doc and then apply for tenured positions
at the associate or full professor level. This is changing
somewhat, and many schools do have an assistant professor position.
This position is not tenured and is frequently not tenure track;
that is, there is no guarantee that after several years of good service
there will be an open, permanent professor position.
In general, an assistant professor position will not be guaranteed any
funding for students. An associate professor will have funding
for 1 or more students and a full professor from 2-4, although
getting permanent funding from the university for 4 students is rare.
This is something that can be negotiated a little; salaries are
pretty fixed but the funding for graduate students can be
increased. At all ranks, professors generally have the same
teaching load and are free to run their own research programs.
Universities differ greatly in the type of work environment. Some
are more focused on collaboration with industry. Some teach in
German, some allow teaching in English (or writing dissertations, etc).
Also, some departments are known to be more hierarchical than
others. For example, at TU Munich, associate professors report to
a full professor. This means they may not always have complete freedom
to determine their own research program. This can vary greatly
from university to university.
Some faculty recommend getting a post-doc at a quality institute and
waiting and applying for associate-level positions. Given the
different career-track options, you should strategize with your advisor
and others.
Finding out about jobs
Unlike in the U.S., where most applications deadlines are in December,
a job opening in Germany may come up at any point in the year.
Traditionally, job seekers were expected to have Ph.D. in hand
and several years of post-doc experience. For new assistant
professor-level positions, it may be possible to apply and say the
Ph.D. is expected in 3-6 months. This is also fine for post-doc
positions.
There is no central listing for academic jobs at the professor or
post-doc levels. Many jobs from Germany, Switzerland, and
Austria are listed on die Zeit.
The site is in German. You can create a login for free and
sign up to have the site send you periodic updates of jobs that match
your search criteria. Given the on-going availability of new jobs
and the often short application deadline, start getting job opening
updates early.
Job application
As in the U.S., the publication record and letters of recommendation
are the most critical pieces of the job application.
Traditionally, research and teaching statements were not part of
the application process, but including them in the application won't
hurt. These are documents that are optional, so it's one place
you could customize your application to highlight ways you could
specifically support the teaching or collaborate with others at a
particular school.
CVs in German have a slightly different style from U.S. ones.
They often include a picture and some personal data like your
birthday or place of birth. They may also include other information,
such as marital status or religion. It's fine to leave these
off., but including at least the birthday is completely standard.
Some schools are interested in knowing about your experience in
collaborating with industry, so having sections in your CV with
projects led, people supervised, and funding can be useful.
Interviewing
When you're invited for an interview, you give a standard job talk
which is less than 1 hour. You will need to find out if it can be
in English or German. Afterwards, you sit down at a big
conference table with faculty and they ask you general questions to
determine how well you'll fit in with their department. For
example, why you applied there, how you think you'll contribute, what
you can teach, your funding prospects etc. They will also ask
what you want from them, as in what kind of student funding you'd like,
any special equipment etc. You'll need to be prepared for these
questions. There is also an opportunity for you to ask questions
of them about the departmental culture, how to get funding or stipends
for your students, if there is support from a graduate school, etc.
There is room here also to negotiate start-up funding.
Language
The language depends on the university. UDS computer science
particularly follows the U.S. model. English is in everyday use
in the CS department, and many courses are taught in English.
Other schools will expect you to give your job talk in German
and/or be able to teach in German within a certain number of years. Find
this out beforehand if it's an issue.
Switzerland-specific information
Like Germany, Switzerland has started to implement non-tenure-track
assistant professor positions. Some of these are just advertised
as professor positions, and some may be funded by the Swiss National
Science Foundation but located at specific universities.
Job advertisements should clearly say whether or not the position
is tenure-track. The non-tenure track positions cannot expect permanent
employment. In Switzerland, after 6 years an employee becomes a
(more) permanent hire.
This impacts non-tenure track employees as well as graduate
students. Graduate students are strongly encouraged to graduate in
less than 6 years. This can be a challenge for systems students,
which
often take longer, and can put pressure on professors to graduate
students quickly. The Swiss schools by and large advertise in US venues
(ACM etc.) and
are on the US hiring schedule. The interview consists of a visit
with
a job talk and interviews with the hiring committee, but not
necessarily the wider department. Post-docs are done at the
discretion
of a particular professor.
Top-tier schools
This list just serves as a starting point. The links are to English-language websites for each department.
Germany top 3: Saarland, TU Munich, Karlsruhe
Germany other good places: Aachen, TU Darmstadt, Freiburg
Switzerland top 2: ETH Zurich, EPFL Lausanne (French-speaking)